12 BIOTECH CLUSTER
LSIPR Newsletter 02:13
HUB AND SPOKE? LIFE SCIENCES IN NORTHERN FRANCE
It seems an unlikely place for innovation, but Lille and its surroundings play host to a burgeoning life sciences industry. LSIPR visited to find out more.
T
he French biotech and life sciences industry is, if not necessarily booming, more than pulling its weight in a tough economic
climate. In the teeth of the worst crisis in living memory, France finds itself playing host to some of Europe’s most innovative companies in the sector, driven by clusters of research and development across the country.
One of the largest of these clusters is in the Lille Nord-Pas de Calais region. Its genesis is a mix of geographical accident and strategic design, but today it plays host to more than 800 companies involved in the biotech sector, employing more than 22,000 people.
Geographically, it makes sense. Lille is extremely well served by transport links, making it easy to do business whether you’re from London or Berlin. Indeed, Nord France Invest, which aims to attract business to the region, trumpets the fact that the city lies almost in the middle of six European
“Eurasanté provides participating companies with training on the legal aspects of R&D including IP protection, as well as guidance on the regulatory challenges of conducting clinical trials.”
capitals. And it’s no coincidence that Lille has a Eurostar station, the first city stop in continental Europe for those arriving from London. Te local government and industry lobbied hard to ensure that happened.
More than that though, there is a strong academic rationale for the industry. Te University of Lille Nord de France is spread across six different campuses, and is one of the largest in the country. In a similar vein, the local hospital is actually seven hospitals, employing 2,750 doctors. So the potential for innovative companies to gain support from academic institutions and the profession that may end up practising their inventions is huge.
Of course, the Lille Nord-Pas de Calais region is not alone in this. Most biotech and life sciences clusters grow up around academic institutions and medical facilities, almost by definition. Tere are other assets too, though. For start-up companies, seed capital worth up to €1 million is available in the right circumstances, while companies working in the Eurasanté Bioincubator facility in the Bio Business Park can benefit from substantial tax breaks (sometimes an effective corporate tax rate of zero), given the right criteria. Eurasanté is an agency designed to stimulate economic development of the health sector in Lille and its surrounds.
But who are the companies? Well, there are some big pharmaceutical players with a presence in the region, as you’d expect. The likes of AstraZeneca, Bayer Schering Pharma and GSK Biologicals all have operations there. There are food and nutrition companies (Roquette is perhaps the most significant in this area), and then there are myriad smaller players, start-ups and SMEs, which have developed in the region, and many of which have benefited from the tax incentives available.
Life Sciences IP Review
IN THE CLUSTER Name: Genfit
Founded: 1999, Lille
Business: Cardiometabolic diseases Employees: 80
IP: 250 patents/patent applications
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